uncaptioned

The archivists at the US Library of Congress regularly put out campaigns to identify mysterious photographs, with happily an ever-dwindling cache to solve, but there are a few that still defy an engaged public and persons yet at-large. Among the malingerers is this assumptively familiar, famous and iconic image that has accrued a sizeable largess of misidentification and wrong guesses from Joan Jett to The Slits and all manner of duos in between. More puzzles to untangle at the link above and all guesses are welcome.

Tweet

doppelhaushälften

Via Present /&/ Correct, we quite enjoyed meditating on this series of larger family properties converted into duplex units in the heavily industrialised region of the Ruhrgebiet (previously) as captured by photographer Wolfgang Fröhling as a consequence of the departure of the younger generation as mining and factories close and are repurposed. The defiantly contrasting exteriors of the cleaved homesteads draws one into the lives of the respective residents. More at the links above.

Tweet

another one rides the bus

Hosted by news anchor and television personality Tom Snyder, the late night programme The Tomorrow Show, airing on NBC from 1973 to 1982, had several prominent guests including John Lennon, Ken Kesey, The Grateful Dead, Ayn Rand and Charles Manson—giving national exposure and their first televised performance to U2 and Weird Al Yanovic, who appeared on this day in 1981. The network often used the show to plug holes in late night scheduling, including conducting an impromptu ninety minute interview with Jerry Lewis in October of 1975 to cover over technical delays until Snyder could interrupt the conversation to introduce the “Not Ready for Primetime Players”—later to be recognised as the first cast of Saturday Night Live.

Tweet

7x7

one man’s trash: a preview (plus whole film) of a documentary about spelunking in New York City’s garbage  

dare mighty things: Martian rover Perseverance (previously) conducts first test flight of its airfoil drone

distant drums: the ‘Wilhelm Scream’—the stock effect of a man being eaten by an alligator  

personnage: the almond and pebble that inspired Joan Miró’s sculpture  

palace of culture: a choreographed tour of Lithuania’s Socialist Modernist architecture  

moon unit: Space X awarded NASA contract for lunar lander for the upcoming Artemis mission  

pegged: artist Helga Stentzel (previously) creates a clothes-line polar bear to raise awareness for climate change

Tweet

the long and the short of it

We enjoyed this grand tour of the continent through superlative toponymy—with of course the crowning achievement for the longest placename being a village in Wales (pro pronunciation help here), but we also get to visit Italy’s contender on the shores of Lake Maggiore and the pictured postcard from the Dutch village of Gasselternijveenschemond plus a few one-letter wonders through a variety of art and artefacts from the collections of a Europe-wide consortium of museums.

Tweet

reeperbahn

We quite enjoyed this peek into the industries of rope-making and yarn-spinning that gave Cable Street of the East End and Whitechapel through the lens of the late eighteenth century company of the Frost Brothers when it was documented in illustrations and photographs in 1905. Like the above-titled way in Hamburg, the area began as a straight grounds where hemp fibres were twisted into ropes for the ships that would anchor on the Thames between London Bridge and the kilns at Limehouse.

Tweet

your daily demon: amon

Ruling from today through 24 April, the first degrees into the House of Taurus, this seventh spirit is an infernal marquis presenting as a fire-breathing wolf with a serpent’s tail but will assume human form if compelled by his sigil and facilitates the reconciliation of feuds and smooths relationships between friends. His name is thought to be a conflation of the Punic (Carthage) deity Baal-hamon, he who induces to eagerness, though others source him as the Egyptian sun god Amun Ra, the deified pharaoh and his later fusion with hawk-headed Horus. Countered by the angel Achaiah, Amon commands forty legions.

Tweet

1600 pennsylvania avenue

Via friends of the blog Everlasting Blört and Nag on the Lake we are treated to the changing interior touches that each new US presidential administration (see also) brings to the executive office, the Oval Office completed during renovations in 1909, and the choice of art, artefacts and personal effects have a symbolic resonance. The vignettes tied to each presidency as told in décor are pretty interesting—like how Dwight Eisenhower kept the furnishings of his predecessor Harry S. Truman without any significant changes other than managing to destroy the floor by neglecting to take off his golf spikes when returning from the putting green he had put on the back lawn. The tradition of keeping Swedish ivy on the mantle goes back to the Kennedy administration and the current runner was rooted from the original vine.  More at the links above.

Tweet